The present inventions are related to systems and methods for extending flash memory lifecycle, and more particularly to systems and methods for circular access to a memory device.
Flash memories have been used in a variety of devices where information stored by the device must be maintained even when power is lost to the device. A typical flash memory exhibits a number of cells that can be written a finite number of times after which the cells become unreliable. To increase the lifecycle of such flash memories, various wear leveling algorithms are employed that attempt to assure that an approximately equivalent number of writes are performed to each of the cells in the device. Such wear leveling algorithms level the wear in a device such that the cells expire at approximately the same point. Such wear leveling, however, can cause data movement within a flash memory device, thereby increasing the wear to some cells within the flash memory device.
Hence, for at least the aforementioned reason, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for extending the lifecycle of memory devices.